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Immigrant Children

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much funding was provided to support newly arrived immigrant children in the last year for which figures are available; and if she will take steps to increase such funding. [52660]

Jacqui Smith: Funding is available from three sources: local authority allocations of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG); the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG); and Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers Carers (UASC) Grant. The formula used to calculate Schools Formula Spending Share for 2005–06 and previous years took account of the extra spending needed by those authorities with populations of children for whom English is an additional language, and from low performing ethnic groups. Approximately £435 million of the £24.6 billion Schools FSS for 2005–06 was distributed on the basis of numbers of children in these two categories. Since the formula for Dedicated Schools Grant starts from local authorities' spending on schools for 2005–06, that will also take account of the extra spending needed by authorities with such children. There will be increases in allocations of Dedicated Schools Grant per pupil of 6.8 per cent. and 6.7 per cent. for 2006–07 and 2007–08. The formula for distributing Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant also uses the proportion of children for whom English is an additional language, and from low performing ethnic groups. The total amount of funding for EMAG was: for 2005–06, £168 million; for 2006–07, £174 million and for 2007–08, £179 million. The figure for 2005–06 includes local authority matched funding; the figures for 2006–07 and 2007–08 are DfES grant, and reflect the transfer of matched funding from Dedicated Schools Grant for those years. We made available £11 million of UASC Grant in 2005–06, and plan to make available £12 million in 2006–07 and 2007–08. The grant is paid retrospectively in line with the number of UASC care leavers supported by each local authority.
 
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Information and Communication Technology

Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she has taken to increase the use of information and communication technology in higher education; and what assessment she has made of the effect on costs of these steps. [52101]

Phil Hope: We have been encouraging and supporting the use of information and communication technology in higher education. Our strategy for the use of ICT across the whole education sector, including higher education, for the next five years and beyond was published last March in Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services". The primary objective of using ICT in higher education is to improve and enhance the way institutions fulfil their objectives for providing high quality teaching, learning and research, and all investment decisions will have been judged to be cost-effective.

We will be measuring efficiency gains from a range of specific initiatives which contribute to our Gershon efficiency target, including savings that accrue from the increased use of ICT. These are set out in our Efficiency Technical Note. In most cases, the gains are recyclable at the frontline into other activities rather than being clawed back by the Department. The Department is reporting progress towards our overall efficiency target through existing departmental reporting processes. We reported progress towards our target in the Department's autumn performance report and will report further progress in the departmental annual report which we expect to publish in April.

Interoperable Tools

Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment she has made of the cost of developing standards (a) relating to and (b) monitoring the use of the sharing of interoperable tools and resources across educational institutions and sectors. [52099]

Phil Hope: No specific assessment has been made of, nor is information routinely collected on, the cost of developing standards (a) relating to and (b) monitoring the use of the sharing of interoperable tools and resources across educational institutions and sectors.

Interoperability standards are a critical element of an effective national digital infrastructure. Such standards by nature are global and agreed between many different nations. The UK is participating within bodies such as the International Standards Organisation to facilitate their creation and adoption. This removes much of the requirement to create standards only for the UK educational sectors, although specific requirements do still remain.

Becta (the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) and JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee) have worked together to coordinate standards development activity for the school, further education and higher education sectors since the mid-1990s. In this way, the priorities of the UK sector as a whole has had a significant impact on the international standardisation agenda. Within the UK, close cooperation between the agencies and vendors in
 
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measures such as interoperability testing events, and between the agencies and the sectors in communities of practice has ensured that best practice and best-of-breed tools have spread widely and rapidly.

Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps she has taken to increase the sharing of interoperable tools and resources across educational institutions and sectors; and what assessment she has made of the time savings for teachers and lecturers in lesson preparation and administration as a consequence of these measures. [52100]

Phil Hope: As the standards and the tools have matured, BECTA (the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) and JISC (the Joint Information Systems Committee) have spread interoperable content and tools within institutions by running a number of procurement and deployment programmes. Initiatives such as the Learning and Skills Council's NLN (National Learning Network) materials and JISC's X4L programmes have embedded best practice in this area. A number of approaches are being taken to increase the sharing of interoperable tools and resources.

Within sectors there is a range of initiatives to enable the sharing of tools and resources. In the schools sector for example, there is the Teacher Resource Exchange and the DfES national whiteboard network as well as local initiatives managed by local authorities and regional broadband consortia.

The Learning and Skills web portal is being developed to act as an aggregator of content and advice and guidance for all practitioners involved in the post-16 sector. When it is launched in April it will offer users access to a wide range of existing content from different providers, including other sectors, though, for example, searching Curriculum Online. Future development will add additional sources and added value services.

JISC and BECTA are exploring cross sector opportunities. The LSC (Learning and Skills Council) has instigated research to establish any barriers and identify solutions to the sharing and use of the National Learning Network materials for other sectors.

We will be measuring efficiency gains from a range of specific initiatives which contribute to our Gershon efficiency target, including productive time savings for teachers and lecturers in lesson preparation and administration. These are set out in our Efficiency Technical Note. In most cases, the gains are recyclable at the frontline into other activities rather than being clawed back by the Department. The Department is reporting progress towards our overall efficiency target through existing departmental reporting processes. We reported progress towards our target in the Department's autumn performance report and will report further progress in the departmental annual report which we expect to publish in April 2006.

Investors in People

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what correspondence she has had with Investors in People (IiP) UK Ltd. on the (a) granting and (b) re-accreditation of IiP status for her Department. [53101]

 
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Phil Hope: The Department has had no direct contact or correspondence with Investors in People UK in regard to either its original recognition or subsequent reviews.

IT Systems

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much her Department allocated for school IT systems in each year from 1997 to 2005 in (a) Leicestershire and (b) England. [51726]

Phil Hope: The Department does not hold information on specific allocation figures for IT systems in schools within Leicestershire local authority (LA) or England. Funding for schools IT systems will be included within the overall ICT allocation figure for the LA.

ICT funding allocations for Leicestershire LA since 1998 are detailed in Funding for ICT in Schools in England" which is available in the House Library. The document also includes total funding allocations for schools in England in each year.

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